• Trapped



    Chapter One: The Bad Day




    “Do you really think they would go that far?”

    “I don't think so. But there's no harm in being careful.”

    “Aside from the harm it does to the budget. The beaucracy won't be happy that we're spending their money on a whim.”

    “Spending it on defense, you mean. I never want to see the day where money is deemed to be more important than national safety.”

    “Let's get back on subject, please, Colonel. What do we have?”

    “Yes, sir. The Russians are massing troops on the border of Kazakhstan. They might be preparing for an invasion.”

    “Where?”

    “We don't know, sir. But we're doing our best to find out.”




    Westview High School, November 17





    “.....And that, class, is why Admiral Chester Nimitz is the most respected Admiral the US Navy has had.” Mr. Rogers monotone voice dragged on, as Emily Smith struggled to stay awake. She found herself dozing in and out of consiousness, the droning voice pulled her toward slumber.

    “Next, we shall study-” Mr. Rogers was about to start the next lecture, when the end of period bell rang. “This will be on tomorrow's quiz, class!” But no one listened to him as they shuffled out of the room, excited for the five minutes of freedom between the last class and the next.

    Emily walked sleepily to her locker, when her friend, Michelle, walked up to her. “How boring was history today?” Michelle asked.

    “So boring....but even better, I have to go to geometry now. I'd rather take Rogers.” Emily said, paying more attention to her locker combo than Michelle.

    “Geometry? I love math! I'll go instead!” Michelle replied, feigning excitement.

    “Ha ha. Very funny.” Emily said, messing up her combo again. “Damn. For lunch, can we please go out? I don't want to be here. This is the worst day of my life.”

    “Sure, we can go. But you're driving. And paying.” Michelle said, looking away.

    “What? Why?” Emily demanded.

    “Cause you want to go!” Michelle exclaimed. She smiled wide, knowing that Emily would give in.

    “Fine.” Emily said, after a few seconds of silence. She tried her locker again, and it finally opened.

    “Well, unlike you, I don't want to be late. So see ya!” Michelle said playfully, and left.

    “Yeah, real supportive. Thanks.” Emily said to herself, taking her books and running to her next class.







    Special Operations Command (SOCOM) Headquarters, North American Aerial Defense (NORAD), Colorado Springs, CO




    Master Chief Petty Officer Luke Skirata walked quickly through the hallways of the SOCOM headquarters in Colorado Springs. He had just gotten through with early morning drills when he received urgent orders to report to the Briefing Room, bad news if someone read between the lines, which was something Luke was good at. It means, the s**t just hit the fan real quick, if they called me. He thought.

    He had been pulled out of high school just one and a half years ago, selected to become the leader of the new generation of special forces. The Naval-commanded Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. The ODSTs would be fighting using the newest tactical advantage the United States has gained: space. Him and his soldiers would be launched into space, and orbited around Earth until they reached their destination, where they would be blasted into their landing zone using special drop pods. Crazy and stupid as it was, they had trained to be the best. Which was exactly what Luke was. My first real mission isn't assigned to me until June. Why are they doing this now? He wondered as he walked into the briefing room.

    “Ten-shun!” Luke shouted as he entered the room, and saluted.

    “At ease, Master Chief.” The highest ranking officer, Admiral Roughead said, as he gestured Luke to sit.

    “I'll make this quick, Chief.” The Admiral said, pressing a button that opened a map of the United States. “We have reason to believe an attack on the United States is imminent. Spies from the Middle East and Russia indicate that they are preparing for a full-scale invasion.”

    “Sir? Are you serious?” Luke asked, not believing what he heard.

    “Dead serious, trooper. We are doing all we can to mobilize our forces without drawing any attention, and that's where you come in.”

    “Sounds like my first mission is going to be sooner than expected.” Luke remarked.

    “You thought right. You are going to be deployed to a facility in Oregon, where you will retrieve data from a secure computer terminal. This intel can't fall into hostile hands. If it does, this conflict will become much worse, much faster. Now, we have two places that this intel could be. The first is the computer terminal in the main office. The second, is in a secure blast shelter underneath the school, accessed from the janitor's room on the first floor.”

    “Understood. Just me, sir? No one else?”

    “Just you. Get ready to move out, trooper.”



    Emily ran into math class, hardly five seconds after the tardy bell rang. She slid into her desk discreetly, trying not to draw any attention to herself.

    “Ms. Smith, late again.” Mrs. Sama, the math teacher, said from her desk. “According to the computer, this is your 4th tardy. And that means detention.” She said, with obvious satisfaction.

    “Damnit....” Emily muttered under her breath.

    “And, using language in my class. That shall get you another hour of detention.”

    Emily had had it. Enough of this bad day. “Screw this! Screw this class!” She said, getting to her feet.

    “Please step outside, I will be with you shortly.” Mrs. Sama said, just barely looking up from her paperwork. Emily grabbed her books and marched out of the class, not looking back at the people who had just watched her make a fool out of herself.

    She sat down in front of the lockers outside Mrs. Sama's room. Screw all of this. What use is it? There's no point to any of this. School. I quit.
    As she was wallowing in her thoughts, her friend Hailey walked by, holding a hall pass in her hand. “Whats wrong, Em?”

    “This is the worst day of my life. I hate everything.” Emily said, her head in her arms.

    Hailey sat down next to Emily. “Don't worry, everything gets better after awhile. You'll see.”

    “That doesn't exactly make me feel better.” Emily said, not looking up.

    “Well, let's go out to lunch today. You and me. That'll make you feel better.”

    “Well.....alright. Thanks, Hailey.” Emily replied, finally smiling.



    Luke looked at his mission briefing, and was shocked at what he saw. “Gunny! Hey, Gunny!” he called.

    Gunnery Sergeant Miles walked over to him. “Need something, Chief?”

    “This accurate?” Luke said, pointing to the report.

    “I don't know, sir. Roughead didn't fill me in on any of this, just said to arm you to the teeth. Off the record, though? A lot of things don't add up. I thought that Westview was a high school, not a government facility.”

    “It is. Says here that I need to go underground to the facility. What the hell was the government thinking, building a secure complex under a school?”

    Miles loaded a magazine. “What do you care?”

    “I used to go there. Before I got conscripted.”

    “Huh. No kidding? Isn't that a twist of fate?”

    Luke started putting on his blast armor that all ODSTs wore. “Something like that, yeah.”

    Miles took a rifle off of the weapon bench. “Here she is. M4A1 carbine fitted with a supressor, ACOG scope, commando mod, and reflex sighting that goes straight to your helmet. Fresh off the testing board.”

    Luke took the rifle and inspected it. “Not bad. Has the smart-linked scope been field tested?”

    Miles smiled. “You are field testing it.”

    “Figures.” Luke said, as he took a magazine and inserted it into the rifle. As he picked up his helmet, the display screen above him flashed to life.

    “This is not a drill.” The announcer on the display said. “Incoming hostile aircraft. Believed to be Russian and Middle Eastern in origin. Prepare for invasion. All non-essential personnel, get a weapon and provide security. I repeat, this is not a drill....”

    “Looks like they started....” Miles said weakly. He walked over to the supply bench and picked up a pistol.

    “I need that data.” Luke replied.




    “See? Today didn't turn out so bad after all!” Hailey said encouragingly.

    “I suppose....” Emily said, walking into the school after lunch. As she said that, the bell rang.

    “Damnit!” Hailey yelled. “Gotta go! Don't be late!” She said as she ran off.

    “Great.” Emily said, walking through the hall. She was starting to get a bad feeling in her stomach, one that wouldn't go away. What's wrong now? She thought as she walked slowly toward her next class. She didn't even bother stopping at her locker to get her books as she went to English class.

    “Ma'am? Can I go to the bathroom?” Emily asked, not five minutes into the period. The bad feeling had now spread, she felt weak in all parts of her body.

    “Sure, make it quick.” The teacher said, not even looking up from her desk. Emily got up from her desk and ran to the bathroom. She went to the toilet and waited for the dry heaves to come. But they never did. Oddly, the feeling of incoming despair had lessened, to the point where she could actually stand normally.

    “What's going on.....I don't know what the deal is today....” Emily said to herself. Over the intercom in the hallway, she heard the voice of the principal, Mr. Flaren, come on.

    “Everyone, get to the grain building immediately. Evacuate the school, now!” Emily did not heed the warning, however. Probably just another drill. I'll catch up with them later. When I feel better....



    Chapter Two: Attack


    “Situation report, Lieutenant!”

    “We have 27 hostile submarines surfacing as we speak, landing troops on the West Coast. In addition, Russian aircraft carriers massing in the Pacific have launched attack helicopters and bombers. US point defense guns are up and gunning down any aircraft nearing a populated city.”

    “Any counter-attack ready?”

    “No word from the brass yet. They're just as shocked as we are.”

    “Is it just the Russians?”

    “No, sir. Middle Eastern flags have been spotted on the hulls of some helicopters. We aren't sure what that means, but right now, I'd say we have a bigger situation.”

    “Agreed.”

    “Umm....Colonel? I have 5 objects incoming from midland Russia.”
    “Objects?”

    “Yes, sir. Computers indicate they are missiles.”

    “Conventional, or...”

    “Unconfirmed, sir.”



    Luke watched from the viewscreen of the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter at the closely approaching brick building that was Westview High School. Past the horizon, however, he saw tiny flashes of light, each pinprick an explosion of flak from the groundside defense guns.

    “We're holding them off, at least!” The pilot yelled at Luke.

    “Trying to...” Luke murmured.

    “You're some slick new special forces, aren't you?”

    “Yeah, guess you could say that.” Luke said, hefting his rifle.

    “Well, I won't argue about being made to haul your a** around. Probably live longer doing this than if I was on the front lines anyway.”

    Luke ignored the obvious rebuke and cowardice. “Just get me where I need to go, pilot. That's your job.”

    The pilot nodded. “Yes sir! Happy to assist, sir!”

    Luke let himself drift off into thought. Maybe he's just scared. Can't say I blame him. But everyone needs to do their job. Otherwise, this war won't last long. War....yes, he knew it would come to war eventually, though hopefully, the US could beat the Russians so bad that all that would result is a small-scale conflict.

    “Approaching the school! s**t! Taking small arms fire! Looks like you're gonna have company.”

    “Just get there.” Luke said.

    The helicopter hovered above the roof of the school, and started taking fire from the ground. Luke jumped down from the rail onto the roof, and sprinted to the nearest cover, a ventilation duct.

    “s**t! Taking fire! Mayday! Mayday!” The pilot yelled over the radio. Luke looked around from the duct, to see the Black Hawk smoking from the rotors, when a huge flash of light coming from the Northwest. He ducked behind the duct to shield his eyes, and saw the Black Hawk lose control, and dive into the grass below.

    Luke peeked his head out from the duct, and found himself staring at a mushroom cloud miles high, and possibly 150 miles away.

    “Jesus.....” Luke said, as he ducked down again, and pulled up his map on his helmet. Portland. That was the only place the missile could have hit. “Poor bastards. There goes Portland.” Before he could think about how many people were just vaporized in an instant, the shock wore off, on both him and the enemy soldiers that were too awed by the blast to notice. Luke started taking fire from the ground, and he was forced to duck back behind the duct.

    “Ugh, screw this.” Luke said, as he took out his combat knife from his chest plate, and used the serrated edge to saw through the vents of the duct. He punched through the vent, grabbed his rifle, and jumped through the duct, into the ventilation system.



    Emily was about to get up and join the rest of the students at the grain building, when she heard what sounded like firecrackers coming from outside the bathroom.

    “What's going on now?” Emily said to herself. She got to her feet, and opened the stall door. The sounds of firecrackers, now sounding oddly like gunshots, got louder and louder. Emily peeked her head out of the bathroom into the hallway. She saw men in the hallway, wearing bulky-looking vests, and carrying rifles, AK-47s. Emily ducked back into the bathroom, but one of the men saw her, and yelled something foreign.

    “Ah, hell.” Emily said, and she ran for it.




    Luke kicked through the vent above the main office. He dropped through, and as soon as he landed, sighted two Russian soldiers wielding AK-47s. He took aim with his suppressed M4, and squeezed the trigger only twice. Four bullets spat out of the rifle, two in each head. The hostile soldiers fell, and Luke sprinted to the main office.

    “Come on, you piece of junk. Give me what I need.” He silently said as he accessed the computer terminal. He ran his hacking program through the computer, and it searched for the data he needed.

    “Gotcha!” He said, as the flash drive popped out with the data. Luke grabbed the drive, and placed it in the storage compartment in his chest plate.

    “Now, just gotta get out of this cesspit.” Luke mumbled, and he ran into the hallway. Attached to a pillar, a package had an LED display counting down, with 02:22 minutes remaining.

    “s**t....!” Luke growled, as he sprinted to the stairs, jumped over the rail, and rolled as he landed on the floor. He shot three Russian soldiers clean, and started running down the hall when he saw someone not in a Russian uniform running for dear life towards him. A girl, He thought. A student, probably. What the hell is she doing here? Wait.....is she who I think she is? Is that- His thoughts were cut off from him, however, when a Russian right behind the girl decided that Luke was a higher priority target than the girl. Luke took a bullet in the left shoulder pauldron, shook it off, and took aim at the soldier. He squeezed the trigger, and one bullet shot out, along with the click of an empty magazine.




    Emily ran from the bathroom, and sprinted for her life towards the other end of the hallway, towards the janitor's office. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a package attached to the pillar straight across from the janitor's office door. She closed her eyes, and kept running, hearing the angry screams from the foreign soldier behind her. When Emily opened her eyes again, she saw a man wearing black blast armor, with a black visored helmet who raised his rifle, and shot. She let out a gasp, then exhaled as she realized that the bullet was not for her. She looked behind her, and saw the foreign soldier, shot in the knee, struggling to get to his feet. The soldier in black armor put his rifle on his back, took out his pistol, and shot the other soldier in the head.




    Luke felt the Glock sidearm buck, and saw the Russian soldier fall. He placed his sidearm back in its holster, and retrieved his M4 rifle. When the deafness of combat subsided, he saw another bomb on the pillar next to him, with only 32 seconds remaining on it.

    “Ah, hell.” Luke said, as he quickly looked around him. The janitor's office....the blast bunker! He thought, quickly reaching an epiphany. He grabbed the girl roughly by the arm, and ran into the janitors office.

    “What are you doing?” The girl screamed.

    “Stay down!” Luke yelled back, as he ripped the faux bookshelf from its frame, and uncovered an old elevator. He grabbed her, and pulled her into the elevator. Once the door was closed, Luke slammed down on the down button. The elevator descended, but slowed to a stop halfway down the shaft.

    “Stay here!” Luke commanded the girl, as he punched through the ceiling of the elevator. He climbed on top of the ceiling, and pulled out his knife again. Luke flipped it to the serrated side, and started sawing through the steel cable. Can't be much time left....Luke thought as he sawed faster and faster. And at last, the cable snapped, and the elevator fell, as Luke was barely able to grab hold of the ceiling. He fell deeper into the shaft with the elevator, until the elevator reached the bottom of the shaft, and landed with a crash. The force of the collision knocked Luke out cold while the bombs went off above him, and Westview High School collapsed above their heads.



    Chapter Three: Sanctuary


    “What have we got, Colonel?”

    “General, I regret to tell you that all 5 missiles were thermonuclear ICBMs.”

    “So what all was lost?”

    “Sir....I....”

    “Colonel, just remember that every civilian killed here will be avenged tenfold.”

    “Yes sir. The five targets that the missiles hit were Eureka, California; Sacremento California; Redding, California; Portland, Oregon; and Crescent City, California.”

    “My God. And the situation with those cities?”

    “Undetermined, sir. We're trying to ascertain that now.”

    “And what is the situation with Master Chief Petty Officer Skirata?”

    “Unknown, sir. Westview High School was destroyed in an unrelated explosion, though his status is still listed as Active.”

    “So he's alive?”

    “Yes, sir. Though I might say, we have bigger problems than rescuing one special forces soldier.”

    “I hate to agree with you, but I do. We need to prevent the fall of the West Coast before we rescue anyone.”




    Luke groggily opened his eyes and looked around. He picked himself up, put his combat knife back in its sheath, and grabbed his rifle. He went down the hole into the elevator, and found the girl from before, knocked unconscious too. Luke picked her up, opened the elevator door, and walked into the blast shelter. It was a small room, with two shelves stocked with survival supplies, a primitive radio on a desk on the far wall, and a power box next to that. There was only one chair, but on top of the shelf were three sleeping bags.

    Luke set the girl down on the chair, and went to the supply shelf. He flipped through boxes of Meals Ready to Eat, purified water, and propane bottles, searching for something useful.

    The girl stirred, and slowly opened her eyes. “Where am I?” She said groggily.

    “Oh good. You're awake.” Luke said, continuing to go through the supplies.

    “What happened? All I remember is you shooting that foreign guy, and after that.....my head hurts.” The girl said.

    “Well, lets start with names. You, you're Emily, aren't you?” Luke asked, finally turning towards her.

    “Yeah....do I know you?” Emily asked.

    Luke took off his helmet, and Emily gasped. Luke had changed. He no longer had the sparkle in his eyes that gave her buterflies in her stomach every time he looked at her, instead being replaced by cold, precise, hardness. He had a livid white scar over his right eye, with smaller scars on his chin and left cheek. Everything about him screamed military.

    “Science class, remember? We were lab partners.” Luke said, his scarred face smiling.

    “Yeah....Luke. I remember you disappeared shortly after the semester change.”

    Luke looked at the floor. “Disappeared. In a manner of speaking.

    “So what are you now? Some Army commando?”

    “You could say I'm something like that. Naval Special Warfare.”

    “Since when?” Emily asked.

    “Freshman year. When I left.” Luke said, remorse in his eyes.

    “So that's where you went....” Emily replied, lost in thought. Luke walked over to the desk and set his rifle down. He turned on the radio and tried to tune it.

    Luke sighed. “I can't raise CENTCOM. Or NORAD.”

    Emily looked confused. “Can you translate for me for someone who doesn't speak soldier?”

    “CENTCOM is Central Command. NORAD is the North American Aerospace Defense Command. Home base. But they're not responding.”

    “What does that mean? What's going on out there?”

    “Well, there's only one sure thing. Portland is gone. I saw the nuke go off before I came in.”

    “Wait, what the hell? Hold on, Portland? Gone? What the hell's going on?”

    “We were invaded. The Russians landed an invasion along with nuclear strikes at large cities.”

    It took Emily a few moments to put the information together. “Wait....nuclear strikes? Where?”

    Luke took a second to pull together his composure. “I saw the nuke hit Portland. I don't know weather they hit anywhere else. Its possible, but its also hard to think about that.”

    Emily got tears in her eyes. “So Portland is......gone?”

    Luke put his hand on her shoulder. “Yeah. I'm sorry.”

    Emily looked at him with anger in her eyes. “This means war, doesn't it?”

    “Absolutely.” Luke said, satisfied with Emily's response.




    “And after that, Haley took me out to lunch, and things got better for a little bit. Then, the Russians attacked.” Emily said. She had been retelling the story of school after Luke got conscripted for 2 hours now.

    “I'm sure the students got evacuated.” Luke said, not sure weather he believed his own words.

    “Yeah....I hope so.” Emily replied. Luke closed his eyes, and leaned against the wall. When Emily felt ready to ask, she took a deep breath.

    “Why don't we just climb our way out?” She finally asked.

    “We don't know what's up there?” Luke said, his eyes still closed.

    “Like what? Rubble?” Emily asked, still not satisfied with his answer.

    Luke sat up and opened his eyes. “The bombs up top were marked with a general warning label. That means that there were something in them other than explosives.”

    “Such as?”

    “Well, it could be napalm. Or poison gas. Nerve agents.”

    Emily slouched in her chair. “How long? Until we can see what outside is like?”

    Luke considered. “A couple days. Four, at most.”

    “Alright.” Emily said, resigned to her confinement. “Then what is here to eat?” Luke laughed, and got up towards the shelf. He threw an MRE to her, and she just looked at the box.

    “Enjoy. Army food.” Luke said, ripping open his box, and eating one of the included crackers.

    Emily just nibbled on it. “I'm tired.” She said after putting the MRE down. Luke picked up a rolled up sleeping bag, and handed it to Emily.

    “Where are you going to sleep?” Emily asked, unfolding her sleeping bag.

    “I'll sleep on the chair.” Luke said, walking over to the chair and putting his legs up on the desk.

    Emily laid inside the sleeping bag, and thought for a moment. “I'm glad you're back, Luke. I missed you.” With that, she added, in a tone so quiet that only she could hear, “More than you know.”



    Chapter Four: Crash


    Presidential Response Speech, Washington D.C.

    November 17



    “Ladies and Gentlemen: Earlier today, the United States fell under nuclear attack from the Russian Federation, now allied with the Middle Eastern countries of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Iran, to form the Second Warsaw Pact.

    The missile strikes destroyed the cities of Sacremento, Crecent City, Redding, and Eureka in California, and the city of Portland in Oregon. The leadership of the Second Warsaw Pact claimed that the nuclear attack was not ordered, instead, the missiles were launched without permission by outspoken individuals in the Russian military.

    But regardless of the reason, Russia launched an unprovoked nuclear strike on America. The American counter-attack destroyed much of the Second Warsaw Pact's leadership. The leaders, meeting in Moscow to oversee the attack on America's West Coast, were obliterated when the city fell to no less than half a dozen nuclear warheads. Other cities to be destroyed include Ryazan, Orel, Smolensk, Voronezh, and Volgograd. Now, with their leadership in shambles, the Russian military, as well as their allies in the Second Warsaw Pact, are left without their most respected Generals and Admirals. Phase 2 of the American counter-attack is being prepared as we speak. The United States, with NATO and the United Nations behind it, demands vengeance, and we will get it. For the innocent blood spilled on our sands calls us to arms, and we will prevail.”




    Luke awoke to a loud crashing noise. He grabbed his rifle, thumbed the flashlight, and searched the room. Emily was up in an instant, rapidly looking left to right to find the source of the noise. When it finally stopped, Luke set his rifle down again. “Things are just settling downstairs. Don't worry.”

    Emily just sat up. “Don't worry? We're trapped in a bomb shelter, when the world above us could be falling apart as we speak! And you're telling me not to worry?”

    Luke thought for a second. “Well, it does help that no one's shooting at us.”

    That was the last straw. Emily had had it. She jumped to her feet. “What the hell is wrong with you? Aren't you fazed by anything? Doesn't anything get to you?”

    Luke looked back to his helmet on the desk for a moment. “You need to calm down. Yelling and screaming won't help anything. We've only been down here a couple hours. This really isn't bad for me. A couple days rest, food, and down time. Compared to what is waiting for me in the outside world, this is great.”

    Emily sat back down. “Is this what the military has done to you?” Luke could feel the sadness in her voice. “I'm so sorry. You're a teenager. You shouldn't be like this. Fighting and killing for the government.” She got up, and sat in Luke's lap. Luke looked at her for a moment, and was about to say something, when the radio on the desk buzzed to life.

    “Mess-zzzzz-all US persone-zzzzzz-Winter Contingency has been declared. All-zzzzzz-report to populated cities on the West Coast to repel attackers. Unite-zzzzzz-stands on DEFCON 1. Recalling all soldiers, Reserve and Guard, to your local Air Force base to await order-zzzzzz”

    Luke tried to fiddle with the radio, but to no avail. Nothing but static. Emily stood up, and looked embarrassed. She coughed, blushing, and said, “Well, at least there's still a world out there.”

    “Yeah. But its not looking good.” Luke replied. He turned the radio off, and looked at Emily. “You better get to sleep.” Emily looked down at the floor, and walked over to her sleeping bag. Luke put his helmet back on, and put his legs up again. He watched Emily for a short while, and when he was sure she was asleep, he let himself fall asleep.



    Luke walked through the hall of Westview High School, looking at all of the people he passed. Everyone who passed him by didn't even give him a second glance. Haven't they seen me? I'm a soldier. I don't even remember taking off my armor. He thought to himself, and looked at his hands. They were bare. He was wearing a plain white shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes. Exactly what he wore the day Colonel Stamper went to school his freshman year and told him he had been conscripted.

    “Hey, Luke!” One person said to him. The person walked up to him, and tapped him on the shoulder.

    “Hey....” Luke said, lost in thought. Mike? Was that his name? Mike....Mitch....I think it is Mike.
    “Luke, you okay?” Mike said.

    “Yeah....yeah, I'm okay.” Luke said, and he started to smile. I'm back. Back to normality. Back to the way it used to be. But Mike wasn't the same he was when Luke left. He was older. This was Mike in the present. This isn't real.....I'm not really back. He started walking down the hall again, and the people glanced at him. Luke saw something bright at the end of the hall. He started walking faster. The faster he walked, the more people started looking at him.

    Luke started running. And everyone was staring at him. He looked at his feet. He wasn't wearing his tennis shoes anymore, he was wearing his combat boots. And when he looked back up, he found that he was carrying his rifle in his hands. But still he kept running. And the light was walking away. Out of the doors. Into the outside. Luke knew he had to get there, or something horrible would happen. He burst through the glass doors, and reached the blindingly bright light, and found it was....Emily.

    “Emily? What are you doing here? You're in the.....bunker....” Luke said, finally realizing that he was dreaming. But he was content with that. Emily held out her hand, and Luke took it. At that moment, he heard the unmistakable sound of a jet engine. As he looked up, he saw hundreds of bomber planes fly overhead, dropping their explosive cargo. Luke pushed Emily into the school, and raised his rifle to the bombs and fired. The roar of the jet engines was overwhelming, and everything went black.

    The roar of the jets turned into a crashing metal sound. Luke was wondering why the noise wasn't stopping, when he realized that the noise wasn't part of the dream. He tried to pull himself from sleep, and his eyes gradually opened. The darkness didn't fade, and the numbness of sleep was replaced with a piercing pain in his right leg that ripped him from sleep.

    Luke tried to reach over for his rifle, but fell from his chair. He landed on something foreign, something that shouldn't be there, according to his memory. He pushed a button on his helmet, and a bright light shone from the attached flashlight. He looked at a metal I-beam that he was laying on, and rolled around to look at his leg. It had gotten grazed by the I-beam as it fell, slicing open his combat gear and tearing through the flesh underneath.

    “Emily? Emily!” Luke yelled, looking for where Emily was laying. The room was pitch-black apart from his beam of light, looking around frantically for the girl. Everything had fallen from the ceiling, tiles had fallen onto the floor, fragmenting where they landed.

    “Luke! Over here....” Emily said from a corner. Luke staggered over to where she laid, and put his hand on her shoulder.

    “Are you okay? Are you hurt?” Luke asked frantically.

    “Yeah....I'm good. I'm good. What happened?” Emily asked, curling into a ball.

    “I don't know. Things must be worse up there than I thought.” Luke said, wincing as he shifted his leg.

    Emily gasped. “You're hurt!” She cried.

    “I'm fine.....I'll be okay. We have something bigger to do.” Luke said, slowly got to his feet, and held out his hand for her to follow.

    Emily took his hand and stood up. “What's that?”

    Luke looked at her, and even through his visor, she looked him dead in the eye. “We need to get out of here.” He said.




    Chapter Five: Escape



    “They're falling back? Why?”

    “NATO has finally made a statement declaring war on the Warsaw Pact if we do. The Pact is falling back to Russia to lick their wounds.”

    “In preperation for our counter-attack, you mean.”

    “You know it, sir. Nobody screws with the United States.”

    “Sure seems like a lot of people want to try, though. They'll get their's, though.”

    “Just give the word, and all hell will break loose on them.”

    “First things first. Don't tell me you forgot about your star student.”

    “Soldier, sir. Not student. And no, I haven't forgot about him. His soldiers performed flawlessly during the invasion.”

    “Well, its time to find him. His place in the coming war is bigger than you can imagine.”

    “Sir?”

    “I want Skirata leading the counter-invasion. See to it that he is found.”



    Luke stepped over the rubble and flipped the power switch on. Nothing. He pulled the breaker out and put it back in. The lights were dead.

    “No way. Damnit.” Luke said, and flipped on the light on his rifle.

    “Did you get it to work?” Emily asked.

    “No. Lights are dead. So we do this the hard way. Are you ready to get out of here?” Luke asked, motioning toward the elevator.

    “No. I don't want to go.” Emily said, and she sat back down.

    “What? What do you mean? This place is going to collapse!” Luke exclaimed.

    “But its a hell of a lot better than the world outside. I don't want to go back to the every day bullshit.” Emily said, her mind set.

    “Then what? You want to stay here and be crushed?”

    “No. I want to stay with you.”

    “With me?”

    “Yes. Wherever you go, I want to follow.” Emily said.

    “Emily, this isn't the place to talk this over.” Luke said, opening the elevator door.

    “You let me stay with you, or I'm not going.” Emily demanded.

    Luke looked at the ground. Why am I hesitating? I wouldn't want to be with anyone else. But this isn't the life I want for her. I don't want her just to wait for a soldier like me. Does she know what she's saying?“Emily, do you really want this? To be with a soldier at war?” Luke asked, already knowing the answer.

    “I wouldn't want anything else.” Emily answered.

    “Then let's get out of here.” Luke put his helmet back on and switched on he Identify-Friend-Foe system. It read that there were two US soldiers at ground level.

    “What's going on?” Emily asked, stumbling over the rubble.

    “They're looking for us.” Luke replied, and forced the elevator door open.

    “Who?” Emily said, as she stepped inside the elevator.

    “Other ODSTs.” Luke said, and he jumped up through the elevator ceiling. He held out his hand, and Emily followed.

    “Alright, hold on.” Luke told Emily, and he threw a grappling hook from his belt, and it caught on a pipe near the ground level floor. Emily jumped on Luke's back, and he climbed up on the wall. His leg screamed at him, but the bleeding had stopped.

    Luke and Emily neared the top of the elevator shaft, and Emily whispered to him, “You promise you'll let me stay with you?”

    “I promise.” Luke said, and he crawled through the blown open elevator door. What was once Westview high school was now a giant pile of debris, brick, and sheetrock. The second floor collapsed on the first, and it all came down on the ground.

    “Sir! Is that you?” Called a voice from across the ruins. A man, wearing the same blast armor as Luke, ran up, and started panting.

    “Yeah, Bill, its me. About time, too.” Luke said, putting Emily down.

    “Sorry, sir. We did our best, but we just got here.” Bill said, and gestured to another ODST.

    The other ODST ran up and saluted. “Sir! It's glad to see you in one piece.”

    “You too, Fred. Radio for evac, and let's get away from here.” Luke said.

    Just then, a voice from behind a collapsed stone pillar rang out in a foreign accent. “I'm afraid I cannot allow you to do that.” A man, dressed in the uniform of a Russian general, walked out, and raised his pistol at Emily.

    “You b*****d!” Luke yelled out, and ran in front of Emily. The pistol bucked, and Luke felt a stabbing pain in his left shoulder. He fell, and as he did, Fred leapt out and stabbed his combat knife deep in the General's chest as Bill ran over to Luke.

    “I'm fine!” Luke said, as he staggered to his feet. The wound in his shoulder didn't break the skin due to the kevlar in his blast suit, but the fall was too much for the clotted blood in his leg, and it started bleeding again.

    “That leg could be infected. It got sliced clean through. We need to get you to a medic.” Bill said, and he slugged Luke's arm.

    “I'll look at it later. We need to go before more show up.” Luke said, as he heard the best sound in the world: a Blackhawk helicopter, coming to rescue them.




    “So where are we going?” Emily yelled over the roar of the rotors.

    “Colorado springs. NORAD HQ.” Bill said, the sound amplified from his helmet. Bill signaled Luke to put his helmet on, and he opened the private chat.

    “There something going on between you and the civvie?” Bill asked.

    “Yeah, there is. Something wrong with that?” Luke asked.

    “No, sir! Just wondering. ODSTs get special privliges anyway, she could stay with us.”

    “That's what I was hoping.” Luke said, and he took his helmet off. “Bill, what's the situation?”

    “Sir, do you really want her knowing?” Fred said, looking at Emily.

    “Either tell us both now, or tell me later, and I tell her myself.” Luke said, determined.

    “Understood, sir. Russia allied themselves with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Iran, to form the Second Warsaw Pact. Well, the Russians landed troops all over the West Coast using submarines and landing craft. Four aircraft carriers anchored just off the coast of California launched bomber jets that hit inland cities hard.”

    “Before I went into Westview, I saw a mushroom cloud. What was that?”

    Fred hung his head. “You probably saw Portland go. Russia launched 5 ICMBs at the US, Russian radicals in the military gained control of a launch site and threw all they had at us.”

    Luke just stared ahead. “Where did the missiles go?”

    Fred took a deep breath. “One hit Portland, as you know. The others hit Sacremento, Eureka, Crescent City, and Redding. Total losses, all of them.”

    Luke looked toward the metal floor. “And our counter-attack?”

    Fred tried to supress a chuckle. “The Pact all sent their leaders to Moscow to oversee the attack. And we nailed them. Dropped 6 nukes right into the capital. I heard that before they were launched, someone painted on '...Liberty and Justice for all' on all the missiles headed to Moscow. We don't even know which one got them all, but they're all gone now. The leadership, the Generals, the Pact is running around like a chicken without a head.”

    “So we got them good.” Luke said, still in shock over the nuclear attack.

    “Yeah. Not just Moscow, either. Ryazan, Orel, Smolensk, Voronezh, and Volgograd all went up. And the Joint Chiefs of Staff are getting the invasion force ready.” Fred said, his anticipation showing through.

    Luke smiled. “Good. Where is the invasion force gathering?”

    Fred looked down at the city of Colorado Springs below. “Right down there.”

    http://www.gaiaonline.com/arena/writing/fiction/vote/?entry_id=102187481#title
    the above link leads to the second part. please rate and comment! thanks